The National Medical Commission has released draft guidelines on the processes involved for Indian medical students, and foreign medical graduates to practice medicine in India. As per media reports, with the help of the guidelines, the medical education regulator has announced that a dynamic national medical register will be created, assigning a unique ID to each student qualifying for NEET along with mentioning their professional qualifications including postgraduate and super-speciality training in the register.
According to a report by the Indian Express, to practice medicine in India as foreign medical graduates, the new NMC draft guidelines for medical practice in India dictates that foreign medical graduates must have completed their MBBS studies in a country other than India, be "registerable as doctors in the said country, have completed a one-year long internship in India and have passed the NExT exam" to be considered eligible to practice medicine in India.
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Currently, medical graduates from India are not required to sit for any licentiate exams, the Indian Express reported, whereas, foreign medical graduates aspiring to practice medicine in India are required to sit a screening test to be registered. With the introduction of the test, NExT, a level playing field is being assured for both, while, also acting as a qualifying test for postgraduate programmes, replacing the NEET-PG test currently required to enrol in PG medical courses in India.
The draft further stated that once the guidelines have been introduced, Indian medical graduates will be required to complete their studies at a recognised medical institute in India, complete a one-year-long compulsory internship and clear the National Exit Test, i.e. NExT.
However, while the NMC has outlined strict guidelines for future medical graduates aspiring to practice medicine in India, a recent report outlines that Indian students going abroad to study MBBS may not be allowed to practice medicine in India. The media report highlighted that several factors such as the duration of undergraduate medical course, the medium of instruction used for teaching and learning as well as the recognition of certain courses will also be considered when finalising whether a foreign medical graduate is eligible to practice medicine in India.
Wish to Study MBBS Abroad?
Source: The Indian Express
